Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

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Sirian
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by Sirian »

It is sad to see how hurt feelings on several sides turn a thread about a wonderful game mod into bickering.

Back on topic: It is a little ironic, since I wrote a post about the planet images having too much atmosphere and such, now you gave the planets a workover and I must admit, I like the old version better, so I use the old version. I can't say why, those images simply appeal to me more. But it is sure good to be able to choose.

I also downloaded the user interface mod, which is top-notch I might add, but here too, I do not use all the icons. Its personal preference of course, but there is one icon, a silver star that is used both to designate a regional capital and the lead ship of a fleet. Here I reverted back to the original. I also like the old fuel icon better. But the rest is a real improvement for my gameplay, thanks for making.

I thought about your response when I talked about me preferring more colorless icons. You are right, the icons do not look so colorful ingame, especially because you do not see them all together. Cursors, for instance do look good with lots of colors. Still, for icons that are constantly on screen I personally prefer more colorless images. It is what is happening on screen that should capture the viewers eye, not the tools at the side. Its a design philosophy I guess but thats how I see it.

I really like the ruins images, planet scene images and star coronae. I constantly have to remind myself that those are mods, not original game graphics. About the ships while I like the idea of marking the ships with stripes to designate the classes I must admit that for me it disturbs the aestetics of the ships too much to use them. (that is - the ships and the idea...) So I only "borrowed" the idea of blacklining the ships for my own ship mod (which will be released "soon(tm)", 8 of 9 ship series are finished as well as all but one MinorSet)

Regards, Sirian
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Martian
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by Martian »

to Darkspire

Calm down, buddy. I was not trying to drag it all up again. Nadia wanted me to explain the case. So I did.

I am sorry if Baleur left. I didn't want him to leave, I wanted him to apologize.

And you are now trying now to represent me as a bad guy, who offended innocent one... Good work...

I don't need your fake "apologize" word, because you don't really mean it.

If you think I am a "rude barbarian" who came to ruin your nice comunity, I can easily leave. Just be strait and tell me that directly.
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Darkspire
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by Darkspire »

ORIGINAL: Martian

to Darkspire

Calm down, buddy. I was not trying to drag it all up again. Nadia wanted me to explain the case. So I did.
ORIGINAL: nadia911

Anyway you disrespected me repeatedly, instead of having tried to explain the case.
Nadia stated asked that you explained yourself before the comments were made from yourself, as you were quite clear on what he wanted why wait till after he apologized 'to explain the case'?
ORIGINAL: Martian

And you are now trying now to represent me as a bad guy, who offended innocent one... Good work...

In no way was I trying to 'represent you as a bad guy' I was trying to get the point across that you seem to say one thing at the start of a post to come across as a reasonable person then at end of the same post you end up contradicting yourself by making a comment or statement which goes against what you previously wrote.
ORIGINAL: Martian

If you think I am a "rude barbarian" who came to ruin your nice comunity, I can easily leave. Just be strait and tell me that directly.

Where did that come from? I never made any remark along the lines of '"rude barbarian"' what I think and what I write are two different things, I was just stating that Ive been on and off the Matrix forums for about ten years and the DW forums for the last two, it has always been one of my favorite places to visit on the web, and in all that time I have never had anything happen on these forums like what has gone on in this post, I just wanted an end to the hostilities. I will admit I am not up to Starfleet standards on the diplomatic front but the post I made was an attempt to put an end to this, the apology was genuine, you wanted everyone to apologize so that the incident could be moved on from, so I did that. No one wants you to leave, it looks like we have already lost Baleur.

Were trying to get new folks on the DW fourms and the last thing we need to present is a community at odds with it self, so I ask again, please treat the issue as resolved.

Thanks

Darkspire
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Martian
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by Martian »

to Darkspire

You were wrong. My conflict with Nadia is resolved.

Of course, if he just apologized to me I would just shortly apologize to him in return. But he added:

"Anyway you disrespected me repeatedly, instead of having tried to explain the case.
I'm surprised that the moderators tolerate this sort of things... "

I felt that he still have doubts and don't understand why I reacted that way.

So in my answering post together with my apologies to him and for the last time I tried to explain him all of my thoughts and my motivation in most clear and sincere way and so we can REALLY remove any misunderstanding between us. So hopefully our issue with Nadia is really solved, I am grateful to him for his courage and good will.

But I don't understand the purpose of that picture with "nice gentleman" in your previous post. Is this how you represent me or Baleur or yourself? Or this is how you usually prove the genuineness of your apologies?
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Martian
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by Martian »

to everybody

I am so tired of all this. I feel myself to be quite inconvenient person on this forum.

If Darkspire is right and you "never had anything happen on these forums like this before", then, I guess my logic and common sense is really not very compatible with most of forum members. Maybe it's not best place for Martians to come. [;)]

I am not going to change my values and my viewpoints. So I can see the only way to return peace to these forum. This will be my last post. It doesn't mean I will stop reading these forums and play DW, but I will stop posting any messages here. I am not going to remove my mod, (at least, in the near future) so anyone who likes it can still download it.

I apologies for all inconvenience and troubles I brought here and wish you all the best and continue developing great DW community.
I hope Baleur will return to this forum, and continue doing good mods.

Sincierly,
Martian

P.S. Erik you can lock or ban my account.
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Texashawk
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by Texashawk »

Martian,

First off, I love your mod. Just downloaded it last week, and it's brilliant.

That said, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

From my reading of the whole thread, you've received either kudos or apologies from practically everyone. If that's not enough for you, perhaps the community is not the problem.

Mirrors do not exist just for the vain and the insecure.

Steve
ORIGINAL: Martian

to everybody

I am so tired of all this. I feel myself to be quite inconvenient person on this forum.

If Darkspire is right and you "never had anything happen on these forums like this before", then, I guess my logic and common sense is really not very compatible with most of forum members. Maybe it's not best place for Martians to come. [;)]

I am not going to change my values and my viewpoints. So I can see the only way to return peace to these forum. This will be my last post. It doesn't mean I will stop reading these forums and play DW, but I will stop posting any messages here. I am not going to remove my mod, (at least, in the near future) so anyone who likes it can still download it.

I apologies for all inconvenience and troubles I brought here and wish you all the best and continue developing great DW community.
I hope Baleur will return to this forum, and continue doing good mods.

Sincierly,
Martian

P.S. Erik you can lock or ban my account.
Lifetime "You Magnificent Bastard!" callouts: 5
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ASHBERY76
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by ASHBERY76 »

Have Baleur and Martian ever been seen the same room?

Talk about drama queens.
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Erik Rutins
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by Erik Rutins »

Wow, I guess I should have checked in over the weekend. It looks like both Baleur and Martian took grave offense from that initial encounter, much more so than I initially realized. I'll point you all back to my initial post and also to Haree's wise words.

Humans make mistakes. The internet is a very poor communication tool as it is impossible to actually hear a voice or see a face, so a post can be read however the reader wants to read it, which can lead to major differences in understanding, tone and degree. I find it's always best to give benefit of the doubt. Martian, based on your replies it's clear that you were very much offended by the initial suggestion, but it should be possible to put that offense aside once you realize that it started from a misunderstanding. It should also be possible for you to understand how much offense some of your responses caused. On the internet you should always assume some level of misunderstanding if something comes across as very negative and at least count to ten and think it over before coming to a conclusion. It's very unfortunate to see folks who all enjoy the same game and want the best for it ending up on opposite sides. I regret that this wasn't able to be resolved as I had hoped.

Martian, Baleur, I hope neither of you have left for good. Distant Worlds benefited from your involvement and I hope that this misunderstanding will pass with time and that we'll see you both again.

Regards,

- Erik
Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC


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Baleur
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by Baleur »

My two posts in this thread. Two. My three sentences in this thread. Three.

1. "As for the planets, very similar to what i did back a few months ago, here:"
2. "Seriously, those planets atmospheres are redonkulously similar to mine. You could at least have given credit for the idea/aesthetic direction."


Nowhere did i say "steal" or any synonym to that word. Nowhere did i insult Martian or stealthily tried to take a stab at him.
What i was referring to was the overlay layer he used to add thicker atmospheres to the planet, which on all the planets except the Desert planets looked to be the very same method that i had used.
It's not a genious method nor is it anything special, it's simply a radial gradient of varying density and color composition put on top of the planet itself, then blended according to your preferences.

I probably won't update the mod further, because the direction i would take it would be the same direction as he took it, with more intense edges of varying hues (for example the oxygen hint in the desert planets).
I made my mod at a time when the planets in DW looked very barren and devoid of atmosphere. We had many trials and errors in previous threads where we attempted to bring in other planet art for the game, either from DeviantArt or from EVE Online. There were always issues with mis-matching aesthetics or the lighting not being "full on" as required, so i went ahead and made the mod to at least improve the standard planets in the game.

As for continued modding, it depends on what the future of the game is like. I may just wait for the eventual sequel, if there will be one.
The engine itself has some issues, and doesn't quite run as well as other games do. More gfx mods can only do so much, they can't change the game engine itself.
If a sequel is released one day, in a more traditional engine (a la Unity), my mods will return.

As for the links being down, I haven't visited these forums nor done any DW modding in a long time.
I'll get new ones up later tonight.
I was certainly not bullied to leave, nobody could accomplish that. It's just quite humorous what a controversy those 3 sentences spawned.
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Gareth_Bryne
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by Gareth_Bryne »

Aaaah, very good to hear that you're not leaving[:)]. This area of the forum has been spiced up by eva lilith, Sirian and Martian, and mostly in the right way[8|]. That said, there are opportunities for modding in DW as yet ... unplumbed. As soon as Shadows comes out, there will certainly be even more opportunity for good modding.
"Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts. Only the heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Idiots would fight a war on twelve fronts," - Londo Mollari
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Yskonyn
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by Yskonyn »

It's great to see that things have settled down.
As so often with text, it is hard to gauge how one should take something written down. There is no intonation, no facial expression, just text.
From reading the arguement here, I believe it might be exactly this issue that caused the trouble.

We are a rather small community. We should be grateful and have open arms for any project being added to improve the game we all love.
There is no money being made on mods, its free time and personal attention spent to create something great for us all.
We should support eachother.
Yskonyn -

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unclean
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by unclean »

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76

Have Baleur and Martian ever been seen the same room?

Talk about drama queens.
No kidding [8|]

Really great mod though, the icons and sun graphics especially are big improvements. Keep it up!
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Quad Fin Rider
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by Quad Fin Rider »

Martian,
This is such an awesome mod[&o][&o][&o]

I really like the new icons and those landscapes & improved planets are absolutely brilliant! I hope you’ll forget all the henpecking that has been going on here and return someday as this game was clearly made better with your contributions. Seriously bro, if you count up all the people in this thread who love your mod versus those who found something to bitch about, you'll find that your appreciative audience is like way in the majority.
What the hell do you know about surfing, Major? You're from goddamned New Jersey.
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Shark7
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by Shark7 »

While there was no bullying, there certainly was a lot of drama that could have been avoided. It is not humorous in any way, it is sad and so very unlike the community I am used to. And I never want to see something like this happen again. This has had the effect of driving off a very talented modder and has hurt the community in more ways than anyone yet realizes...how many current modders will have second thoughts about releasing new materials? How many potential modders will never release anything?

I'm not going to say anyone is at fault here, or that anyone should feel they have to leave. What I am saying is in the future lets please not have all the drama over things that could be handled more privately. As a general rule we don't openly fight amongst ourselves, and I don't want to see it start to happen either. We are better than that.

In other words, can't we all just get along? [:)]
Distant Worlds Fan

'When in doubt...attack!'
Gray Area
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by Gray Area »

I'm surprised by how this was all handled.

I've been on and off, mostly off, these forums for a couple of years now and what strikes me about them as an active observer is how much care contributors have for the game and these forums and the energy and methodical approach modders and regular contributors have to the game and their contributions. In other words, people have produced some really outstanding works - including yourself Shark7, over the years and you and they have put a lot of time and thought into that work.

Not surprising then that Martian and Baleur lose their tempers over what for both were original works.

So surely there should be a process - run by the moderators if not Matrix Games themselves (albeit this would potentially be a legal Gray Area for any company) to deal with these kind of disputes?

As a DW fan, this forum is a pleasure to read and so I am also for a happy crew on the spaceship but not to avoid issues because people will take sides without a process and that leaves no one happy in the end

Cheers,
Gray Area
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ASHBERY76
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by ASHBERY76 »

Martian needs to come out of retirement. [&:]
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Mansen
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by Mansen »

A big thanks from here for the new celestial body and interface graphics - they really help liven up the universe along with Sirius's ship sets. :)
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Simulation01
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by Simulation01 »

I have downloaded this mod.

I support the creator.

I urge Martian to return.

You have friends here.
"Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though we are not now that strength which in old days moved Earth and Heaven; that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will." -Tennyson
sanderz
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by sanderz »

this mod looks great - does it work with Shadows though?

thanks
unclean
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RE: Graphics Enhancement Mod (GEM) v2.4. Updated: December 22, 2012

Post by unclean »

ORIGINAL: sanderz

this mod looks great - does it work with Shadows though?

thanks

It works great, just make sure you're using the new planet shadows.
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